


Four Years was All I Had

by ClykeLanes



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Cancer, First work in Paranatural, I feel like I should have included puns, Imaax, Isaac gonna die in this one, M/M, Max is a sap in this one, OOC, Very out of character!, WARNING: lack of puns/sass/sarcasm from the characters, maxaac
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 21:12:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2521973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClykeLanes/pseuds/ClykeLanes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Normalcy wasn’t something Max dealt with normally in his daily life, especially after moving into Mayview.<br/>To be honest though, he’d kill for some peace and quiet now and then.</p><p>Okay, maybe he wouldn't, but someone still dies. Maybe the thought jinxed it.</p><p>“No… You can’t die like this!” His sleeves were wet now. “It’s too normal! You… You should die with all that shit you were spewing about smiling and being surrounded by friends! You should die doing something extraordinary—something that’ll burn your face into my mind for as long as I live!”</p><p>Isaac, much too tired to smile or look at him or even to stop looking so dead, just lay there.<br/>All that ‘shit he spewing about’ was happening right now, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four Years was All I Had

**Author's Note:**

> My first work ever.  
> So Max is a sap. Isaac is sick. Isabel doesn't get lines, and Ed gets one.  
> I'm not sure about the way I wrote them, I feel like they're very OOC.  
> I'm not confident in my writing style, but I tried.

His name was Isaac O'Connor.

He had orange hair that stood up on its own and clashing blue eyes that were a little too bright for my taste. Two-thirds of all his clothes were labeled with the words 'shirt', 'clothing' and even his pants sometimes said 'pants'.

When he smiled I could see little sparkles around him. I didn't know how he did it.

I unofficially met him when my father decided that our family—which consisted of me, my dad, and Zoey, my little sister— should move back to his hometown. Arriving at Mayview, I was bitterly informed that I was going to live in a corner shop. As you can probably tell, my dad has great taste in real estate.

At school, I encountered some… terrifying journalists and strange visions before I finally got classed with the Activity Club. Isaac was there, even if he wasn't the one to find out about me first. It was a girl named Isabel, and out first meeting consisted of running, a big smile, a hug, and her locking me in a closet.

Mr. Spender, Ed, Isabel, and Isaac; those were the only people in the activity club all in all. Mr. Spender didn't count so adding me, there were only five members.

You know how clubs with few members usually acted like family? The Activity Club didn't act like that. Oh sure, they acted like a family; a rather dysfunctional one. Looking back, everyone was mean to Isaac, but I only saw the normal things, like making fun of him and telling him his drawings were terrible.

As a kid, of course I joined in. It was fun.

  
\--

  
 _Isaac was strange._

  
He seemed okay enough though, even if my dad told me that it was okay to have standards when he first met the guy. In fact, I met Isaac the same time my dad met him. I didn't really get the standards comment, so I shrugged it off and said that we were only friends 'in the loose sense of the word.'

  
That was our official meeting. He was buying this disgusting semi-vegan chew (at least this company was honest.) And he happened to buy it at my house-slash-store. There was this little 'debacle' the night before, and when I saw him there, I got frustrated at Isabel for spilling to the others where I live now.

  
But my frustration was returned by confusion on his part, and I found out that he was kept in the dark about a lot of things—almost everything, actually, it was kind of sad.  
Okay, Isaac was probably very lonely. I mean, I've barely been in town for three days and he already trusted me enough to show me his secret shortcut.

  
\--

  
 _Isaac… strangely grew on me._

  
Two years after the day we first met, we were still in each other's company. Isabel and Ed hung out with us more too. We were in the ninth grade now, and I have to say that I kind of wanted to continue the Activity club into high school.

  
Pondering on the subject, it was most likely to happen. There weren't a lot of high schools in Mayview.

  
I've gotten to know Isaac over the years. An example of that was that now I knew that he loved watching Japanese cartoons—anime, he would always correct me. And that he gets annoyed when someone insists that anime are cartoons. They kind of are though.

  
I, personally think that the angst ones are getting to his head though.

  
He kept spewing shit about wanting to die surrounded by friends and with a smile. I'd never tell him, but the thought of him—the thought of anyone wanting to decide how they'd die bothered me a lot. I don't know why, maybe it just felt like he was jinxing it.

  
Years of living in Mayview would cause you to start believing that superstition stuff. Believe me, I know.

  
\--

  
 _Isaac was turning me into a freaking sap._

  
Normalcy wasn't something I dealt with in daily life. Almost every day here was like someone took this town and put it on crack.

  
I would've killed for a normal day though. But strangely I was completely against the idea of moving away.

  
It got better soon though, the longer I stayed. The spirits eventually calmed down and while there was finally peace in my life, the ability to see spirits stayed with me.

  
Isaac became my best friend (in the loose sense of the words) and the first thing I thought of when the idea of moving popped up in my head was his sad expression. It bothered me more that I thought it did.

  
\--

  
 _Isaac was sick._

  
I was almost as terrified (maybe even more, actually) as he was when I found out about his cancer. He noticed it too late, and now there was nothing doctors could do for him anymore.

  
At first, I couldn't accept it. Isaac was not going to die, he can't die! That's what I thought. The idea of someone like him dead was so unnerving. He had always been alone, hadn't he? Why would death claim him when he was finally doing fine?

  
I wasn't a religious person, but I once remember attending a funeral. I was pretty young, so I don't remember who it was. But my dad was saying something about a better place, heaven.

  
Was Isaac going to heaven? He better. That was my initial thought, but then I started letting my worries get the better of me. What if heaven didn't exist?

  
What if a person lived, then died, and then just disappeared with nothing left? No matter who that person was, he’d be forgotten. That… scared me.

  
I got up from my bed and got out my laptop dad gave me when I won a parkour competition last year and looked up 'death theories'. I clicked on the first result, which was a list.

  
I went to sleep lost and terrified that night.

  
\--

  
 _Isaac wasn't moving._

  
He was still alive though, and I was relieved when he started talking. He used small words and made his sentences shorter. He was going to die, he knew. And here I was, living in denial.

  
I don't want to accept it, even though I was growing closer to.

  
\--

  
 _Isaac couldn't speak anymore._

  
He just lay there, staring at the ceiling. Me and the other members of the Activity club were present in the room, even Mr. Spender was there, sitting on a chair, looking quite troubled.

  
I was sitting on a chair to Isaac's right, with my arms folded. Isabel and Ed were at his left, trying to make him laugh, which they knew was no use, Isaac wouldn't even move his head anymore. Even that seemed so tiring to him these days.

  
I was quietly feeling resentment. Not to any of the members of the Activity Club, never. I was pretty mad at Isaac's mother, who left about two hours ago, after we found out that today may be Isaac's last day on Earth. She left, saying that she couldn't bear it.

  
What kind of no-good parent does that?! Even MY dad and sister were dropping by soon, and even Isabel's Grandpa would be present! It made no sense, really. In all my years of knowing Isaac, he had never actually interacted with Isabel's grandfather. Ever. Yet here the old guy was, present on the day Isaac was believed to die.

  
Geez, when I said it like that it sounds like people were anticipating Isaac's death.

  
But nonetheless, Isaac's mother was never going to get on my good side, ever.

  
I was snapped out of my thoughts when the doorman was suddenly beside me. I looked at Isaac then at the cardiac monitor. The waves were getting smaller and I'd never get the chance to do it ever again, so I held my best friend's hand.

  
\--

  
 _Isaac was dying._

  
Yet he forced his head to look at me, or at least barely half an inch towards my direction. I stood up and met his eyes for him. And saw him trying to smile, but succeeding only with a small twitch on the corner of his lips.

  
It broke me.

  
All the people present in the room was standing up now, surrounding Isaac's deathbed. I was sobbing by then, and my dad was gripping my shoulder.

  
"No… You can't die like this!" My sleeves were wet now. "It's too normal! You… You should die with all that shit you were spewing about smiling and being surrounded by friends! You should die doing something extraordinary—something that'll burn your face into my mind for as long as I live!".

  
I was shaking now, and everyone was looking worriedly at me. I looked up and saw their gazes. "Don't look at me dammit! I'm not t-the one dying!" I yelled at them.

  
Isabel and Ed were crying. Mr. Spender looked defeated, years of excluding Isaac from everything, and now he was dead. Dad, Zoey, and Isabel’s grandpa I knew were less affected by this, but I knew they were still affected.

  
I looked at _him_ and he was… not breathing anymore.

  
\--

  
 _Isaac was gone._

  
For the next few weeks after his death, I wasn't doing very well. I was just… not feeling up to anything anymore. I would start sleeping in class, and I was wearing darker clothes than normal was even after the funeral.

  
Sometimes when I finally did find something interesting, I'd turn to tell Isaac about it. And realize that he won't be there anymore.

  
\--

  
 _Isaac was a memory._

  
And I must be crazy. I'm sixteen now, by the way. And Isaac was nothing more than one of the most important people in my life, but only residing in my memories.

  
Now that I was a bit older, I was looking at photographs. How come I've never noticed how good-looking you are back then, Isaac?

I laughed. Not going into detail about how bright your hair was or how your eyes were too bright for my tastes. I’d bet that if he were still here, I’d be taller than him.

  
Isabel and Ed arrived now, and we were planning to eat out today. I got up and put the mini-album beside the register at the corner store. They noticed the label of the album, apparently. It was ‘First years in Mayview’.

  
"Wanna visit Isaac today?" Ed asked, looking down at me. Sometime in our lives, the guy had a massive growth spurt and was now a few inches taller than me. Isabel nodded and looked at me.

  
"Yeah. Maybe this time we’ll see his spirit." I joked.

  
…

  
My name is Maxwell Puckett.

  
The last time I saw Isaac, he had a head without hair, and blue eyes that eventually became a little too dull for my taste.

  
When he smiled it broke me to pieces. I didn’t know how he did it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope for criticism!  
> Thank you for reading!  
> I'm new here, and I'd love to get a comment or two, haha. But I'm not forcing anyone.
> 
> Note: At the part when Max questions heaven and spirits, he momentarily forgets that spirits are real because Isaac's cause of death was so normal he forgot that his life wasn't normal anymore.


End file.
